My kids have both been very poor sleepers. Ricky, we made a SHED load of mistakes with, so we’re really keen not to make the same mistakes again with Robbie!

With that goal, we’ve been working on the first phase of “Operation Bottle Removal” with Robbie. He only learned to use a bottle at seven months, having been exclusively breast fed until then, and it was a struggle to get him to use one. Recently, he’s been waking every couple of hours at night and expecting to be fed. This happened with Ricky too, to the point where it really was a huge problem and we let it run on way, way too long. Getting Ricky to step down firstly to water in a bottle at night and then from a bottle to a sippy cup took far too long and I am ashamed of how poorly we handled it.

SO- we decided that we would take affirmative action with Robbie now that he is weaned. About three nights ago, we stepped down from milk to water at night. Not a peep out of him. We can’t believe it. Ricky cried and cried every night for about two months when we did it with him. Robbie has a much more placid personality than Ricky, so it’s such a RELIEF that this has gone well!

Next stage will be to move him onto a sippy at night. We need to work on getting him to exclusively drink from a sippy during the day, but I feel we’re heading in the right direction. 🙂

Now that Robbie is not getting any “food” at night any more, we’ve introduced supper into his evening routine. With Ricky, it never even occured to us to try this until I was in hospital with an ear infection, and the girl in the bed opposite me suggested we try it. Ricky immediately started to sleep better at night once he was given either a bowl of cereal or a couple of rounds of toast and a glass of milk before bed. We couldn’t believe we hadn’t thought of something so obvious ourselves!

We’re still in early days with Robbie’s new routine, but I can report that he SLEPT RIGHT THROUGH last night for the first time since last August!!!!!

May this PLEASE been a sign of better sleep to come!! Well done, little guy!!!!!

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3 Responses to “Supper Makes ‘Em Sleep!”

I’m glad that Robbie is such a mellow baby and that you’ve had no trouble in the milk to water transition. I only hope that the bottle to sippy goes as easily. That’s great that he slept through the night! I hope you’re on to something with the dinner before bed.

Even thought it is our third child, when he doesn’t get up in the middle of the night, we become scared and make sure he is alright.

Damned either way! Hope you got some sleep!

I woke at 6am and lay in bed fretting about whether he had died…eventually I crept to his bedroom door, but although I could see him I couldn’t see him breathe- I actually ended up poking him…so pathetic, but I totally know where you’re coming from, especially as your youngest is only 11 or 12 weeks old! 🙂 suzy2110